Cambodia to spend $400m on irrigation
Tuesday, 12 August 2008
PHNOM PENH, Aug 11 (Xinhua): Cambodia will spend roughly 400 million U.S dollars later this year to begin construction of new dams in a bid to improve the country's irrigation system, local newspaper the Mekong Times reported today.
In a joint project with Qatar, Cambodian Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology plans to build a huge dam worth over 200 million U.S. dollars across Svay Rieng province's Vaico River next dry session, the newspaper said, adding that the project will irrigate over 300,000 hectares of rice fields.
Another joint project, with Kuwait, will see the construction of a dam worth over 100 million U.S. dollars across Stung Sen River, which will be capable of irrigating 100,000 hectares.
In addition, the ministry also plans to build Kraing Punley Dam next dry season using a loan of 33 million U.S. dollars from the South Korean government; Basal Dam and Chi Kreng Dam using a 30 million U.S. dollars loan from the Indian government; and a 52 million U.S. dollars dam on the Sangker River.
Water Resources Minister Lim Kean Hor told the newspaper that irrigation will eventually be in place in over one million hectares of paddies throughout the country after the construction projects are completed in the later stages of the new government's parliamentary term.
"Now we are proceeding with the first construction steps and we hope that irrigation will reach nearly 60 percent of the entire country's rice fields ... after the completion of construction," he was quoted as saying.
Currently, only 44 per cent of the nation's rice fields are irrigated.
In a joint project with Qatar, Cambodian Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology plans to build a huge dam worth over 200 million U.S. dollars across Svay Rieng province's Vaico River next dry session, the newspaper said, adding that the project will irrigate over 300,000 hectares of rice fields.
Another joint project, with Kuwait, will see the construction of a dam worth over 100 million U.S. dollars across Stung Sen River, which will be capable of irrigating 100,000 hectares.
In addition, the ministry also plans to build Kraing Punley Dam next dry season using a loan of 33 million U.S. dollars from the South Korean government; Basal Dam and Chi Kreng Dam using a 30 million U.S. dollars loan from the Indian government; and a 52 million U.S. dollars dam on the Sangker River.
Water Resources Minister Lim Kean Hor told the newspaper that irrigation will eventually be in place in over one million hectares of paddies throughout the country after the construction projects are completed in the later stages of the new government's parliamentary term.
"Now we are proceeding with the first construction steps and we hope that irrigation will reach nearly 60 percent of the entire country's rice fields ... after the completion of construction," he was quoted as saying.
Currently, only 44 per cent of the nation's rice fields are irrigated.